Police Officer Amadeus Warnebring was born into a musical family, is tone deaf, and is quite possibly the only one who can stop, literally, a band of terrorists from performing their ingenious masterpiece of musical destruction on the city. Welcome to the Swedish-French comedy Sound of Noise. The film is a follow up to the short Music For One Apartment and Six Drummers (2001) which can be found in the DVD’s selection of bonus features.

More performance art then an actual film, Sound of Noise is a combination of slight storytelling alongside music art the likes of Stomp or The Blue Man Group. I personally couldn’t care less about Amadeus Warnebring and his story and would have seen this film simply for the musical sequences. Maybe I missed something but his story just didn’t seem to matter and in the long run didn’t even amount to much as far as the story of six rebel drummers is concerned. It was just a loose thread in which to hang the music sequences on. So let’s hear more about these musical sequences.

The first thing we see is a woman driving a van while a man sits in the back playing the drums. As soon as their chased by a policeman and the drummer keeps time to help the driver execute turns and lose the cop I knew I was in for something awesome. I had my worries at first that this movie was going to be a film first and a music film second. Nope. As I said, Warner’s story is easy enough to follow and understand when it’s over, but the musical sequences of the film are the film. From the ensemble drum solo fight to the hospital visit where the band uses sounds from various objects they had studied before making their appearance, one of which is a fat man’s unconscious body. I think anyone who has a vast love for music and performance art will love this film, but seeing as I used to be a drummer I have a very special kind of love for this film, or, err, at least the musical sequences. They are innovative, creative, and ingenious. I don’t know weather or not I love the hospital sequence or the bank sequence the most. So come for the music and while your at it you might as well enjoy the story.

Bonus features include the original short that inspired the film, Music For One Apartment and Six Drummers, Music For One X-MAS and Six drummers (another fine musical sequence), Drum Battle: Preparing For The Challenge, Soundcard Stockholm, Water Analysis Part III, and Making “Doctor, Doctor”. All bonus features that I highly recommend. Enjoy.